The ways in which new public management ideas impact upon the administrative culture of 'street-level' bureaucrats and professionals working within Irish social policy

Connelly, Julie Margaret

The ways in which new public management ideas impact upon the administrative culture of 'street-level' bureaucrats and professionals working within Irish social policy

dc.check.embargoformat	Not applicable	en
dc.check.info	No embargo required	en
dc.check.opt-out	Not applicable	en
dc.check.reason	No embargo required	en
dc.check.type	No Embargo Required
dc.contributor.advisor	Quinlivan, Aodh	en
dc.contributor.advisor	Schon-Quinlivan, Emmanuelle	en
dc.contributor.author	Connelly, Julie Margaret
dc.contributor.funder	Irish Research Council	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-03T14:33:26Z
dc.date.available	2014-03-03T14:33:26Z
dc.date.issued	2013
dc.date.submitted	2013
dc.description.abstract	The conventional meaning of culture is ‘widely shared and strongly held values’ of a particular group or society (Bradley and Parker, 2006: 89). Culture is not a rigid concept; it can be influenced or altered by new ideas or forces. This research examines the ways in which one set of ideas in particular, that is, those associated with New Public Management, have impacted upon the administrative culture of 'street-level' bureaucrats and professionals within Irish social policy. Lipsky (1980: 3) defined 'street-level' bureaucrats as ‘public service workers who interact directly with citizens in the course of their jobs, and who have substantial discretion in the execution of their work’. Utilising the Competing Values Framework (CVF) in the analysis of eighty three semi-structured interviews with 'street-level' bureaucrats and professionals, an evaluation is made as to the impact of NPM ideas on both visible and invisible aspects of administrative culture. Overall, the influence of NPM is confined to superficial aspects of administrative culture such as; increased flexibility in working hours and to some degree job contracts; increased time commitment; and a customer service focus. However, the extent of these changes varies depending on policy sector and occupational group. Aspects of consensual and hierarchical cultures remain firmly in place. These coincide with features of developmental and market cultures. Contrary to the view that members of hierarchical and consensual culture would pose resistance to change, this research clearly illustrates that a very large appetite for change exists in the attitudes of 'street-level' bureaucrats and professionals within Irish social policy, with many of them suggesting changes that correspond to NPM ideas. This study demonstrates the relevance of employing the CVF model as it is clear that administrative culture is very much a dynamic system of competing and co-existing cultures.	en
dc.description.status	Not peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Accepted Version
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Connelly, J. 2013. The ways in which new public management ideas impact upon the administrative culture of 'street-level' bureaucrats and professionals working within Irish social policy. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.	en
dc.identifier.endpage	310
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/1423
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	University College Cork	en
dc.rights	© 2013, Julie Connelly.	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/	en
dc.subject	New public management	en
dc.subject	Public sector reform	en
dc.subject	Street level bureaucracy	en
dc.subject	Administrative culture	en
dc.subject	Irish public sector	en
dc.subject.lcsh	Ireland--Social policy	en
dc.subject.lcsh	Civil service reform--Ireland	en
dc.thesis.opt-out	false
dc.title	The ways in which new public management ideas impact upon the administrative culture of 'street-level' bureaucrats and professionals working within Irish social policy	en
dc.type	Doctoral thesis	en
dc.type.qualificationlevel	Doctoral	en
dc.type.qualificationname	PhD (Commerce)	en
ucc.workflow.supervisor	a.quinlivan@ucc.ie